Just Because

In my Anglo-Saxon England class, we've been learning about how the Anglo-Saxons liked to make up history. Yep, they just made stuff up to make themselves look good. This includes many, rather fanciful, genealogies. I was telling my friend, Greg, about this on Friday night, so of course we decided that we too should make up our own genealogies, which in 6th century England would have made us pretty cool. So without further ado, I present my Anglo-Saxon style genealogy.

In the beginning Woden begot Thor, who begot Zeus, the king of the gods. And in turn, he begot Agamemnon, who begot Odysseus, who begot the great warrior Beowulf. Who begot the great King David, whose daughter was Mary Magdalene, and her son was named Noah. And Noah begot Julius Caesar, who begot Charlemagne, who begot Grendel, whose daughter was Jane Austen. Her son was Charles Dickens, who begot Gandalf the Grey, who begot Ronald, who's daughter was the fire-haired Epiphany who reigned over all. 

 Okay, so we took a few liberties, but this is basically what the elite 6th century Anglo-Saxons did. And yes, some of them did claim to be descendants of both Woden and Noah.

In other English history news, yesterday marked the 97th anniversary of the publication of Extricating Young Gussie- the first ever Jeeves and Wooster story! If you haven't had the good fortune to read any of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories, all I can say is that you're missing out. The series was also made into a rather fantastic television show starring Stephan Fry and a very young Hugh Laurie.

I haven't actually seen this episode, but the clip had me rolling around in my desk chair, helpless with mirth.

And finally, if you like free things, of if you like audio books, you should totter over to my dear Mama's blog to find a link to some really great free audio books that amazon and audible are giving away!